Food and Nutrition Assistance Research Database

Project: Where Is the Threshold? Estimation of the Money-Time Threshold for Food Stamp Participants

Award Year: 2006

Amount of award, fiscal 2006: $100,000.00

Institution: Texas A&M University

Principal Investigator: George Davis

Status: Completed

Detailed Objective: This study will use qualitative research methods to focus on economic survival strategies of low-income families, particularly how, when, and under what circumstances they use the Food Stamp Program. Data for this study will come from a sample of low-income adults with children younger than 16 who participated in the Detroit Area Study on Financial Services in 2005-06. Intensive ethnographic interviews will be conducted in order to advance understanding of (1) what coping strategies families employ in times of economic instability and a changed safety net, (2) how families choose among a variety of strategies—self-reliance, help from friends or family, assistance from private charities, or receipt of government benefits, and (3) how families deal with no or limited health insurance.

Topic: SNAP/Food Stamp Program, Time Use

Dataset: American Time Use Survey (ATUS), Current Population Survey food Security Supplement (CPS-FSS)